A primitive odobenine walrus of Early Pliocene age from Japan |
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| Authors: | Hideo Horikawa |
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| Institution: | Ojiya-Nishi Senior High School, 3-3-1, Jonai Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture 947, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Abstract The well preserved cranium of Protodobenus japonicus, a new genus and species of odobenine walrus, is from the lower part of the Tamugigawa Formation at Ooshima-mura, Higashi Kubiki-gun, Niigata Prefecture, central Japan. The lower part of the formation that yielded P. japonicus is Early Pliocene, dating approximately from 5.0 to 4.9 Ma. The skull of P. japonicus is generally shaped like that of the modern walrus, Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus, 1758), but is much more primitive, especially in the dentition. Protodobenus japonicus is derived from the Imagotariinae. It is similar to such primitive fossil walruses as Prorosmarus alleni from the Western Atlantic and Aivukus cedrosensis from Baja California, and has some similarities as well as significant differences from them. Protodobenus japonicus could have evolved directly into Odobenus in the North Pacific Ocean, and could have dispersed directly to the Arctic Ocean. This is contrary to the scenario proposed by Repenning and Tedford, in which primitive odobenids, like Aivukus cedrosensis, migrated to the Atlantic Ocean through the Central American Seaway and returned to the North Pacific Ocean as O rosmarus via the Arctic about 0.6 Ma. Regarding the first lower premolar of the living walrus, Fay concluded after studying fetal O. rosmarus that the first premolar (P1) of the mandible is absent, and that the lower tooth row consists of: C1 P2, P3, P4. Protodobenus japonicus has in its mandible I 1-2 C1 P2, P3, P4, and this is the primitive pinniped formula. Pinnipeds typically lose the molars, not the anterior premolars, and the present author believes that the correct tooth formula for O rosmarus is C1 P1, P2, P3. Its skull, palate, and mandible suggest that P. japonicus had morphology pre-adapted to an early stage of benthic suction feeding, but it probably was unable to rely on that method of feeding. The discovery of P. japonicus demonstrates that the odobenine lineage (true walruses) goes back in time at least 5 Ma. Other more aberrant odobenine walruses, such as Aivukus and Prorosmarus, and pseudo-walruses of the subfamily Dusignathinae, are more distantly removed from the lineage leading to living walruses than has previously been suspected. |
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| Keywords: | central Japan fossil walruses Odobenidae Pliocene |
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